During Apple’s recent quarterly earnings conference call, Tim Cook revealed an interesting nugget about the launch of Apple’s new ultra-thin iMacs. It’s no secret that supplies were extremely short when the device launched late last year, with some customers waiting 5-6 weeks to get their pre-ordered machines – and reflecting on that, Cook noted that he thinks Apple should have waited until this January to release the machines.
Cook said that, looking back, he would have delayed the release – which is a pretty surprising admission on his part. Apple rarely speaks about internal decisions like the iMac launch, especially admissions that make it seem as though Apple made a mistake.
I don’t spend a lot of time looking back except to learn from it. If we could run it over, I’d announce the iMac after the turn of the year. We felt customers had to wait too long for that specific product.
The supply issues were due to a new display lamination process that Apple used for the machines, and in addition to delaying customer orders, the supply constrains also affected repairs for those who already had their hands on a new iMac – many repair parts were not available until several weeks after the new iMacs had launched.
I, for one, am proud of Tim Cook for admitting that Apple is not infallible on matters like this, and I was pleased to see that he felt regret over the situation just like many of Apple’s customers.
